A large group of migrants in Ciudad Juarez in northern Mexico pushed past Mexican customs officials and attempted to run across an international bridge into El Paso, Texas, in a tense incident over the weekend.
Video taken by witnesses and migrants showed several hundred people pushing through federal police border checkpoints and onto the Paso Del Norte International Bridge shortly before 1:30 p.m. local time Sunday.
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All vehicular traffic was shut down for several hours as people lined the bridge from wall to wall. It was not clear and the U.S. government has not disclosed what prompted the group of migrants to meet at and rush the bridge.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the federal agency whose officers inspect pedestrians and vehicles on the northern side of the bridge, sent in officers and members of its Mobile Field Force to secure its side of the bridge, "temporarily preventing the northbound flow of traffic after a large group of individuals formed on the Mexican side of the border and approached the international boundary posing a potential threat to make a mass entry," the agency said in a statement.
BREAKING: Our contact in Juarez, MX tells us a massive group of at least 1,000 migrants just attempted to rush a port of entry in El Paso in an effort to get into the United States. Video shows them pushing past the Mexican side of Paso Del Norte bridge. Awaiting CBP comment. pic.twitter.com/lxriIB3TSm
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) March 12, 2023
A Fox News reporter claimed 1,000 people tried to storm the bridge, but CBP has not confirmed such a figure. Coverage by the El Paso Times indicated a couple hundred people in total were present.
CBP placed physical barriers at the bridge. All cars and trucks were unable to cross the bridge through the afternoon. CBP proactively placed other physical barriers at nearby crossings, the Bridge of the Americas and the Station Crossing.
Scenes frm of the tense standoff btwn hundreds of Migrants & CBP at the top of Paso del Norte Bridge btwn El Paso & Juarez. The intl. bridge remains closed down to vehicle traffic but now appears to be open for pedestrians entering the US. #immigration #ept #jrz #title42 #Mexico pic.twitter.com/epJa7NuSr4
— Ivan Pierre Aguirre : ???? (@i_p_a_1) March 13, 2023
A few hundred people protested at the center of the bridge, where U.S. officials held the line to prevent the group from entering the U.S. side of the bridge.
CBP pulled an unspecified number of its Border Patrol agents who work along the river between the ports of entry, as well as Office of Field Operations special response team members, to beef up the agency's presence at the bridge before it reopened to traffic shortly before 7 p.m. local time on Sunday.
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El Paso has seen past attempted mass entries between the ports of entry, including last October when a group of migrants tried to enter amid frustrations over U.S. immigration policy that allows some illegal immigrants to be released into the country and others to be turned away.
During his visit to the U.S.-Mexico border earlier this year, President Joe Biden visited the nearby Bridge of the Americas.